The Red Wings (35-26-14, 84 points) won back-to-back games this weekend to move two points ahead of Columbus and four ahead of Toronto and Washington in the race for the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

It was Mike Babcock’s 411th victory as Red Wings coach (411-196-90), moving him past Scotty Bowman into second place on the all-time franchise list. He is only two wins behind leader Jack Adams.

“Overall I thought it was a good night for us,” Babcock said. “Helm’s line (with Joakim Andersson and Daniel Alfredsson) is really going suddenly. Nyquist has been on fire. (Riley) Sheahan and those guys could have played more, but anytime you take so many penalties you’re taking ice time away from guys. Gus played solid in net.

“We found a way to get a win. Back-to-back wins is a real positive for our team.”

The Red Wings took a 2-1 lead, which they didn’t relinquish, on Nyquist’s 27th goal of the season at 15:24 of the first period.

Nyquist received an outlet pass from Legwand and was headed for a breakaway before being hindered by Matt Carle. Nyquist fought off the check, which led to a delayed penalty call on Carle. Goaltender Ben Bishop knocked the puck away but Nyquist gathered it at the side of the net and, from an extremely sharp angle, banked it in off Bishop.

“Leggy made a real nice play up the middle and I just tried to get good body position on the D-man to get an opportunity to score,” Nyquist said.

“Made that last move to my backhand and noticed that the goalie was out of the net. I lost the puck a little bit and it went behind the goal line. I was hoping the goalie was still out of the net on the other side so I just tried to spin and get it on net as fast as possible. Nice to see it go in.”

Said Legwand: “I just saw him go to the middle of the ice and he’s got the great speed and what balance he had on that, to swing around and put that in the net.”

Bishop credited Nyquist for making “a nice play.”

“Matt was all over him and I kicked it into the corner,” Bishop said. “He stayed with it and made a nice second effort and spin-a-rama and put a shot in off the far post. You’ve got to give it to him.”

Nyquist has 11 goals in his past nine games and 22 goals in his past 27 games.

“Legwand’s line (with Nyquist and Johan Franzen) was good right from the start; they dominated,” Babcock said. “Great pass and (Nyquist) just stayed on it.

“He’s feeling good about himself. He creates space when he gets the puck. He’s faster with the puck than without it.”

Former Red Wing Valtteri Filppula opened the scoring at 8:40 of the first period and Andersson responded for the Red Wings at 11:08, firing in the rebound of a shot by Helm.

Legwand put his team up 3-1 at 16:36 of the second period by tipping in a shot from Franzen on the power play.

It proved to be the game-winner after Sami Salo scored with 4:29 remaining in the third period.

Gustavsson, who backed up Jimmy Howard the previous six games, showed no rust after not having played since March 7, when he re-injured his groin.

“The guys helped me a lot and even though I let a few rebounds, most of the time they were there to handle those,” Gustavsson said. “I could see the puck pretty good the whole night, so I think the guys helped me feel comfortable, and that’s huge as a goalie.”